Transforming Shame and Testimonial Performance

Abstract

Histories of sexuality and shame go hand in hand in Irish culture. Throughout the twentieth century, bolstered by Catholic teaching, sexuality was largely seen as something to be culturally disciplined and repressed, with no real purpose outside of the reproductive ambitions of a heterosexual marriage. In the 1990s and 2000s, the devastating impact of this policing was steadily exposed, by seemingly endless revelations of the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children in industrial schools and reformatories, and girls and women in Magdalene laundries. The Ryan (2009), Murphy (2009) and McAleese (2013) reports formally recognised just how corrupt so many state-sanctioned institutions of moral management actually were, drawing on harrowing personal testimony. But in a classic Foucauldian way, attempts to patrol sexuality throughout the twentieth century actually resulted in the proliferation of sexual discourses, sites and subjects, such that sex and sexuality became the defining issues or problems for Irish culture to grapple with. Early to mid-twentieth-century literature may have led the artistic investigation of this phenomenon (notably in the literature of James Joyce, John McGahern, Edna O’Brien and Kate O’Brien, for example), but in the past decade a number of theatre and performance makers have reckoned with the legacy of sexual shaming and abuse from personal perspectives, including Mannix Flynn’s theatre and installation work (e.g. James X, 2002/3) and Amanda Coogan’s performance art (e.g. Yellow, 2008).

‘I wank, therefore I slam.’

Neil Watkins, The Year of Magical Wanking

‘I’m facing the shame, separating mine from theirs.’

Veronica Dyas, In My Bed